


steal my heart

by ohprongs



Series: malec au meet cutes [2]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: AU, M/M, Malec AU, art imitates life what can i say, i am definitely cliche title trash, spot matthew daddario's influence on alec's characterisation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-01 15:36:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6526060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohprongs/pseuds/ohprongs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>or, the 'i sent a selfie of myself in the tub to the wrong number and you responded back with another selfie, holy shit you’re really attractive' au</p>
            </blockquote>





	steal my heart

**Author's Note:**

> title from _till kingdom come_ from coldplay because i am clichéd titles trash. this is kind of the opposite interpretation of the prompt, but hopefully people still like it!

Alec’s first thought is that his sister has secretly downloaded Snapchat for him. 

His second is that no, that’s rather ridiculous - he’d spent a lot of time making sure she’d never be able to get into his iPhone. Growing up with Izzy meant he wasn’t going to rely on that four digit shit, because she had the unnerving ability to guess his passcode very easily (he supposed he should have known better than to use her birthday). He takes Apple up on their security measures very seriously, and utilises both the fingerprint recognition and the proper wordy password to keep his sister out. 

His third thought is that actually, despite the awful face he’s pulling, the guy in the picture that just dinged on his phone isn’t actually unattractive. In fact, it could be said that, in the right light, and with a different expression, and - _holy shit he’s in the bath which means he’s naked -_

Okay.

Maybe Alec’s first thought isn’t _why the hell did Izzy make me a Snapchat_ and is more _whaththehellthisguyisreallyhot._

Alec locks the phone and drops it on his bed. Then he decides he should quit acting like an idiot and picks it up again, thumb hovering over the Home button. The phone unlocks and the photo shines up at him again. It’s award-worthy, really. Double - triple - chins and everything, mouth pulled into a gurn, black hair jazz-handing from his head.

It’s not fair that it still manages to turn Alec on. Maybe it’s _worse_ that it does. 

And now he’s imagining what the guy would look like if he was being normal, with those eyes shining and the delicious hint of collarbone that Alec can see at the bottom of the picture that might peep through an open shirt. 

_Fuck._

He needs to get a grip. 

Alec’s looking at the rest of the picture - the navy blue and jade green candles flickering in a golden dish on the bath surround to the right of the guy’s head; the shimmering bubbles floating on the surface of the water; the steam on the tiles behind him - when his phone buzzes again. He taps back onto Messages.

 

[From: Unknown]

20:13 caaaat

20:14 you better not be taking screenshots

 

As Alec’s reading, another message comes through, consisting entirely of shock and praying emojis.  He begins to smile.

 

[From: Unknown]

20:18 i don’t care actually 

20:19 i have enough bad pictures of you that if you start this war you won’t win

  
The phone buzzes again and this time it’s another picture, a photo of the guy in the tub with a delightful scowl on his face. Even through the still image Alec can tell that the dude’s enjoying himself.

 

[From: Unknown]

20:31 screenshotting AND ignoring me??? thanks xo

 

There’s nothing through for a couple of minutes and Alec decides he might write back, just to let the guy know that he’s got the wrong number. Put him out of his misery, so to speak - so he doesn’t think that this friend Cat is really ignoring him. That’s all. Alec debates various options, discarding them all and slumping down on his pillow, wondering why words are so hard all of a sudden. In the end, he goes with: 

 

[To: Unknown]

20:37 Hey, sorry, I think you have the wrong number

 

Relaxed, yet informal, right? No full stop and everything - Izzy would be proud. She’s always telling him that he texts like a granddad.

 

[From: Unknown]

20:37 OH SHIT sorry

20:39 who are you?

 

[To: Unknown]

20:43 Just a guy. Don’t worry about it :-)

 

Alec wants to punch himself in the face as soon as he sends the message.

 

[From: Unknown]

20:45 well hey, Guy

 

There’s nothing after that, and Alec curses. Not that anything should come of it - he’d hardly made conversation, and the person on the other end of the phone was a _complete_ stranger, so why would he keep talking? He pushes his face into his pillow.

A few minutes later his phone chimes.

 

[From: Unknown]

20:53 i know you don’t know her, but cat’s ignoring me and i’m v bored. soo i guess it’s only fair for you to return the favour, right? pics or you aren’t real

 

Alec blanches. The hot stranger wasn’t supposed to ask for pictures. Surely he’d understand if Alec messaged back and said sorry, but he wasn’t really a selfie kind of person? The guy and his friend clearly sent each other pictures all the time, from the photographic ammunition mentioned before. But they were friends - presumably close friends.

The others - Izzy, Clary, even Simon - were always snapping away with their cameras, uploading everything to Instagram. Izzy had posted a picture of him and her with Max and Jace just the other day with the caption #nationalsiblingday and took great delight in informing Alec about the number of likes they’d received. Alec loved that - not the recognition from other people; that didn’t really make a difference to him - but the permanence of a picture of him and his siblings. They were his world, and even though there was an immense uncertainty over the future, how they’d all change and grow, that moment of togetherness had been captured and retained forever. 

It isn’t that he is against photos. He _likes_ what they hold within them. He just doesn’t like taking photos of himself.

Alec starts as his phone bleeps again.

 

[From: Unknown]

21:01 you don’t have to, sorry if i scared you off

 

As soon as he's read it Alec feels the familiar swoop of guilt in his stomach at having let someone down. He knows it’s ridiculous - this guy really isn’t going to lose any sleep over whether Alec sends him a selfie or not. But it still seems like a big deal. 

Maybe he can come to a compromise. The photo of him with Izzy, Max and Jace - it’s not a bad picture, he guesses, and Izzy had (after giving up attempts at being off-hand) continued to send Alec screenshots of every Instagram comment left about how attractive he is. Apparently various people had expressed a desire to punch him in the face, which he was confused about - was that supposed to be a compliment or something?

Alec taps onto his sister’s Instagram page and screenshots the picture he’s decided on. Then he crops it so it mainly shows him - not a particularly difficult feat, since he’s at least a head taller than even Jace, his tallest sibling. 

 

[To: Unknown]

21:07 It’s OK. I don’t really do selfies so hopefully this is alright

 

He adds the picture to a new message. His thumb hovers over the Send button for another minute, and on a decisive breath Alec presses down. 

Shit. 

 _Shit._  

He decides right then to write to Apple and ask them to invent a Recall Message button, but almost before he processes the thought, the reply comes through on his phone.

 

[From: Unknown]

21:10 YOU ARE NOT REAL

 

A series of emojis come through. Eyes. A hand that looks like it’s making a _perfecto_ sign. Some 100s. A fire. Then they repeat. 

Alec stares at his phone. 

 

[To: Unknown]

21:16 Um?

 

[From: Unknown]

21:16 okay, i’m back. 

21:16 i’m magnus. nice to meet you, darling

 

[To: Magnus]

21:18 I’m  Alec.

21:19 It’s nice to meet you too. :-)


End file.
